<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Baking Bread for Science by CrankyLobster</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28225590">Baking Bread for Science</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrankyLobster/pseuds/CrankyLobster'>CrankyLobster</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime &amp; Manga)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Baking, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:40:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,658</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28225590</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrankyLobster/pseuds/CrankyLobster</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Baking is a methodical, sound science with measurements, step-by-step instructions, and clear metrics for success. Ami should, by all rights, excel in the kitchen just as she excels in a laboratory.</p>
<p>Or Ami wants to try baking with Makoto to test a hypothesis.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kino Makoto &amp; Mizuno Ami</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Baking Bread for Science</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Youma.</p>
<p><br/>Cardians.</p>
<p><br/>Daimons.</p>
<p><br/>That awful game of chess with Berthier, sore loser that she had been and the subsequent deep freeze she’d endured for longer than she wanted to admit.</p>
<p><br/>Ami closed her eyes and took in a slow, deep breath as she counted to eight in her head. She exhaled back out to a second set of eight, shoulders relaxing as she let go of the tension in her body just like she had read in those therapy books from the library.</p>
<p><br/>She had <em>died</em> at D Point in their fight against Queen Metalia.</p>
<p><br/>It wasn’t logical, then, that today of all days could be so nerve wracking.</p>
<p><br/>Makoto had insisted on seeing her apartment after realizing one day that none of them had ever stepped in Ami’s residence. She had tried to protest at the time, of course she had, but the tall brunette had been so earnest in her insistence that words had failed her. Once Makoto had settled on teaching Ami how to bake, a supposedly scientific endeavor, and Usagi caught wind of the offer...</p>
<p><br/>It wasn’t like Ami could turn down time with Makoto and Usagi would always push her friends to have a good time. Especially, Ami pressed the tips of her fingers against her lips in a weak giggle, if their Princess thought she might get baked goods out of it.</p>
<p><br/>The apartment was clean, but then it couldn't become messy if she was never truly living in it. The landlord had even asked a few times to use her apartment as a showcase with potential renters, even with her sparse belongings mostly inhabiting the bookshelf and closet in the bedroom.</p>
<p><br/>There was never any reason to object to the landlord’s request.</p>
<p><br/>All of her research and field notes were kept elsewhere and under the surveillance of Luna and Artemis. Her communicator was on her person at all times, just as her transformation wand. Her true home was in Usagi’s bubbly smile, Rei’s scathing wit, Minako’s confused proverbs, and - Ami sighed inwardly - Makoto’s eyes.</p>
<p><br/>Ami glanced around her apartment as she tugged at the hem of her slouchy light blue sweater. This amalgam of furniture, cabinets, and windows was nothing more than a warm shower, clean bed, and storage by comparison.</p>
<p><br/>Makoto had warned her in advance that breadmaking could occupy plenty of kitchen counter space. Given the limited size of her kitchen, Ami had opted to relocate the fruit bowl to the cafe table that was neatly situated in the open space between the kitchen, living room, and front door.</p>
<p>Usagi’s family was always a lively bunch.</p>
<p><br/>Rei had her grandfather and the shrine to look after.</p>
<p><br/>Minako was, well, Minako.</p>
<p><br/>Even Makoto had her plants to look after and keep her company.</p>
<p><br/>Ami couldn’t even manage to keep fresh fruit in the glass bowl at her cafe table.</p>
<p><br/>But, she reminded herself, today wasn’t about any of that.</p>
<p><br/>Today was dedicated to baking bread with Makoto, who was still picking up the ingredients and should arrive any minute based on their text conversation.</p>
<p><br/>She hoped Makoto wasn’t stuck out in the cold like this for much longer, the weather forecast predicted snow later today even if she didn’t need the forecast to know Tokyo would be covered in a white blanket by the morning.</p>
<p><br/>There wasn’t anything else for Ami to prepare. Although, she scratched the inside of her palms, she had no reason to believe that her stove actually worked. Why hadn't she checked that-</p>
<p><br/>A series of heavy handed knocks rattled her front door.</p>
<p><br/>Ami winced, not at her visitor but her own lack of preparation as she made her way to the front door. She would have to settle for hoping that her kitchen was at the very least acceptable to Makoto.</p>
<p><br/>She tugged the sleeves on her sweater back to her wrists, hoping her white pants paired well with her school uniform’s sweater, and adjusted her glasses as she stood at the front door.</p>
<p><br/>If anyone could make her empty kitchen work for them it would be Makoto.</p>
<p><br/>Another series of knocks came and Ami cracked the door open only for Makoto to barge in, paper bags threatening to spill their contents over her arms.</p>
<p><br/>“Here, let me help-”</p>
<p><br/>“I’ve got it.” Makoto laughed as she peered over the tops of the bags and sat them down on the mostly empty cafe table. “But thank you.”</p>
<p><br/>Makoto unbuttoned her olive green coat and draped it along the back of a cafe chair. She stretched her arms out across her chest, the light green sweater hugging her defined triceps and deltoids, before stretching her arms over her head and showing off her-</p>
<p><br/>“D-do we need everything in your bags?” Ami only hoped Makoto hadn’t picked up on the warmth spreading through her cheeks. Based on her research, bread-making didn’t typically involve that many ingredients yet Makoto had brought enough bags to make a three course meal.</p>
<p><br/>“No,” Makoto rubbed the back of her neck underneath her loose ponytail, “but it always helps to come prepared.”</p>
<p><br/>The taller girl took in her surroundings, studying the balcony attached to the living room first before sweeping her eyes through the rest of the environment. “You have a lovely apartment.”</p>
<p><br/>“I’m not really here that often.” Ami crossed her arms along her chest as she scoured the contents of the grocery bags. Makoto must have picked up some groceries for herself too. “It gets...lonely.”</p>
<p><br/>Ami winced.</p>
<p><br/>She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.</p>
<p><br/>“Next time I’ll bring you a potted plant. Maybe a cactus.” Makoto’s vivid brown eyes blew wide open. “Not because you’re prickly but-”</p>
<p><br/>“Because it doesn’t need much water.” Ami giggled.</p>
<p><br/>They hadn’t even started and she liked the idea of a next time, not that she wouldn’t enjoy anything that involved Makoto.</p>
<p><br/>“Exactly!” Makoto beamed with a smile to brighten up the room.</p>
<p><br/>“Okay.” Ami pulled a stray lock of blue hair back behind her glasses. “How do we get started?”</p>
<p><br/>“I brought a few things from my own kitchen.” Mako grinned as she pulled out a bevy of items ranging from glass bowls to metal sheets and a few things that Ami couldn’t identify. “Didn’t know what I was working with here.”</p>
<p><br/>Ami nodded, taking everything in.</p>
<p><br/>“I pre-measured everything out.” Makoto handed a set of blue containers to her along with a glass bowl and Ami pretended she was unfazed by the spark in Makoto’s fingers. “Take these and mix them in with two cups of warm water.”</p>
<p><br/>Ami scurried off to the kitchen, setting each container side by side before opening them up. She thought she knew what each ingredient was and, while it wasn’t a laboratory experiment, she wasn’t about to taste test them to confirm.</p>
<p><br/>She made sure that she had exactly two imperial cups of water and poured the liquid into one of her two pots before setting it on the hot oven top. While the water was warming up, she carefully scraped every last granule of the container’s contents into Makoto’s glass bowl.</p>
<p><br/>Content with waiting for the water to warm, she turned her back against the kitchen counter to watch Makoto apply a stick of butter against a baking tray on the edge of the cafe table. Makoto’s fitted green sweater and high-waisted khaki pants looked so well put together compared to her own frumpy blue sweater and slightly baggy white pants.</p>
<p><br/>Every scientist knew the appropriate dress code for laboratory work and Ami was testing her own hypothesis today, so why hadn’t she dressed up more for Makoto’s benefit? Probably, Ami bit the inside of her lip, because Makoto would definitely notice if Ami varied her usual style.</p>
<p><br/>She definitely couldn’t test her hypothesis without interacting with the subject, so Ami tilted her head to one side and grinned. “Did I just combine the sugar, salt, and yeast together?”</p>
<p><br/>“You got it!” Makoto vigorously nodded. “Two tablespoons of sugar, two teaspoons of salt, and two ounces of yeast.”</p>
<p><br/>The water on the stove began to bubble and Ami poured the two cups into the glass bowl, the salt, sugar, and yeast floating around in the warm bowl of water.</p>
<p><br/>“What’s next?” Ami asked, only for Makoto to appear beside her in the kitchen as she sat sat another container, this one much bigger than the others, next to Ami’s bowl. The greased baking tray had moved, too, onto the stove top where her pot of water had been.</p>
<p><br/>“Can you set the oven to four hundred degrees fahrenheit?” Makoto hiked up the sleeves of her sweater up past her elbows and got to work hand mixing the different ingredients together so that the sugar, salt, and yeast mixed into the water.</p>
<p><br/>Ami blinked several times, entranced by Makoto’s arms, before dutifully setting the oven as instructed. She peered over at the bigger bowl of what she presumed to be flour, trying desperately to acknowledge anything other than the way Makoto’s pants hugged her as she bent over the kitchen counter. “How much flour is that?”</p>
<p><br/>“About five cups.” Makoto grunted as she grabbed two handfuls of flour and mixed it into the glass bowl.</p>
<p><br/>“About?” Ami hitched an eyebrow.</p>
<p><br/>Makoto snorted to herself, the hint of a grin forming on her face. “Exactly five cups of bread flour.”</p>
<p><br/>“Bread flour?” Ami had never heard of such a thing.</p>
<p><br/>“It has more proteins in it than regular flour, which is supposed to help the bread rise. Plus it makes the bread a little denser and chewier.” Makoto paused in her hand mixing and looked over at Ami, a stray strand of brown hair dangling between her eyes, and Makoto winked. “Wanting to make bread more often?”</p>
<p><br/>“I couldn’t imagine baking without you.” Ami pressed her hand to her mouth, her eyes widening as she coughed.</p>
<p><br/>She had certainly not meant to say that.</p>
<p><br/>Makoto fell silent as she looked back at the glass bowl in front of her, working more flour into the growing ball of dough forming in the glass bowl. Her cheeks were red, but Makoto was still warming up from being out in the cold and Ami knew that she couldn’t be the reason why-</p>
<p><br/>Ami bit her lip again and huffed silently to herself.</p>
<p><br/>If only Usagi was here to see how hopeless she was on her own.</p>
<p><br/>She had no evidence to confirm her hypothesis but, then, she had no evidence to deny it either.</p>
<p><br/>“That’s the dough?” Ami cocked her head, hoping she had more time for observation. “Are we already done?”</p>
<p><br/>“Not quite. We still have to knead it and work more flour into it.” Makoto scattered flour lightly along the kitchen countertop, tore the dough ball into halves, and sat half of the dough ball next to where Ami stood. “Here’s your half for your own loaf.”</p>
<p><br/>“Okay.” Ami nodded, pushing her own sweater sleeves up her arms before starting to gently press into the dough.</p>
<p><br/>“No, no-” Mako giggled, sitting her own ball of dough down on the counter before brushing her forehead with the back of her arm. She stepped behind Ami and embraced her, the smell of roses flooding her nose as the taller girl wrapped her arms around Ami’s own.</p>
<p><br/>“Here. Knead the dough like this.” Makoto began to press her fingers into Ami’s, guiding her hands into forcefully kneading the dough and really working the extra flour into it.</p>
<p><br/>Never had Ami been more grateful to be Sailor Mercury, the cool and collected Inner Senshi, as she channeled all of Mercury’s calm into staying focused on the task at hand.</p>
<p><br/>Not the muscular arms wrapped around her.</p>
<p><br/>Certainly not the calloused fingers pressing into the backs of her hands.</p>
<p><br/>Especially not the way Makoto’s breath flowed along the back of her neck.</p>
<p><br/>Most definitely not Makoto’s chest pressed into her back.</p>
<p><br/>“Be sure to really work the flour into the dough.” Makoto laughed as she guided Ami’s hands into pressing the dough. “It’s not fragile.”</p>
<p><br/>“L-like this?” Ami stuttered, hoping Makoto mistook her zoning out as an attempt at being careful, as she massaged the dough harder.</p>
<p><br/>“Yeah!” Ami knew Makoto was smiling even without looking at her and Ami smiled too. “Now you’re getting it. That looks great, Ami-chan.”</p>
<p><br/>“Thank you, Mako-chan.” Ami tried her best to not sound disappointed at Makoto returning to her own ball of dough.</p>
<p><br/>“Can you break an egg?” Mako asked as she worked more flour into her dough ball.</p>
<p><br/>“I think you mean break a leg?” Ami asked, knowing it was an odd request either way.</p>
<p><br/>“It’s not a Minako-ism,” Makoto snorted, “I need a single egg for the glaze.”</p>
<p><br/>“Oh.” Ami huffed at herself. “Silly me.”</p>
<p><br/>“No use in crying over spilled caviar.” Makoto winked.</p>
<p><br/>They broke out laughing together in unison.</p>
<p><br/>Ami washed her hands off in the sink, scrubbing under her nails to get rid of any potential leftover dough from clinging to her hands, and dried her hands off on one of the two light blue kitchen towels that Rei had gifted her one Christmas.</p>
<p><br/>She went to the fridge, confident she had eggs if nothing else, and retrieved a singular egg before cracking it into a small bowl. She sat it in front of Makoto, who had taken the time to stretch out the balls of dough to more closely resemble real loaves of bread.</p>
<p><br/>Makoto dipped her hands into a smaller bowl with the egg in it, whipped it a few times to break the yolk, and gently oiled the tops of the loaves with the egg. How those hands could be so gentle one moment and so powerful in another, Ami would never know.</p>
<p><br/>Makoto nodded to herself in silent contemplation before setting the loaves of dough on top of the greased baking tray and draping a towel over the loaves.</p>
<p><br/>“What is our next step?” Ami asked.</p>
<p><br/>“Let the loaves rise for about forty, maybe forty five, minutes.” Makoto glanced at the clock by the front door before turning her attention back to Ami.</p>
<p><br/>“Forty or forty five?” Ami cocked an eyebrow. “Which is it?”</p>
<p><br/>“Depends on how they look.” Makoto glanced back to the bread loaves. “They need to double in size before putting them in the oven.”</p>
<p><br/>“Is there anything else?” Ami’s eyebrows furrowed. “The recipe doesn’t have any further steps listed and-”</p>
<p><br/>“Not really?” Makoto shrugged. “They need to cool a few minutes after finishing, we can taste test, and we’re done.”</p>
<p><br/>Ami frowned.</p>
<p><br/>Now Makoto was going to leave and, well, so much for testing her hypothesis.</p>
<p><br/>“That…” Makoto trailed off, arms folded across her chest, as her eyes darted between Ami and the floor between them. “That doesn’t mean I have to leave, Ami-chan.”</p>
<p><br/>Ami had never seen Makoto so shy, and she swallowed down her own anxiety as she clenched her hands at her sides. “W-what would you like to do?”</p>
<p><br/>“Bread on its own is delicious, but I’d sooner cook up dinner for two.” Makoto rubbed the back of her neck, a cocky yet fragile smirk on her face. “I know we made quite the mess in your kitchen though-”</p>
<p><br/>“It’s a date.” Ami vigorously nodded, hoping to shake off the growing tension in her shoulders.</p>
<p><br/>Makoto’s eyes blew wide open and her mouth dropped before she caught herself. Her hand pressed up to her mouth, the corners crinkling into a grin, as the brunette giggled. “I was hoping you’d say that.”</p>
<p><br/>They traded smiles only to look away blushing.</p>
<p><br/>Makoto retreated to her grocery bags, leaving Ami to catch her breath in the kitchen.</p>
<p><br/>Her smile grew only wider at the realization that Makoto had planned for this as the taller girl pulled out a bevy of ingredients, clearly hoping to make more than just bread together.</p>
<p><br/>Her hypothesis had been validated.</p>
<p><br/>Makoto Kino did, in fact, like her back.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>